A United Airlines Boeing 767 plane lost its emergency evacuation slide mid-air Monday and ended up in the backyard of a home near Chicago's O Hare International Airport, officials and a witness said.
Patrick Devitt lives in the neighborhood where the slide came down, several miles from the runways at O Hare. In his backyard, his father-in-law and son were inside their home and heard a boom in their backyard around 12:15 p.m. CT. Devitt s father-in-law walked outside, saw the slide in the backyard and told Devitt s son to call 911.
At that time, Devitt was on his way home from work. He got to the house and dragged the slide from his backyard to the front of the home. WLS said the large piece of equipment damaged the roof of the home and a kitchen window screen.
When it s all stretched out, Devitt told the Chicago station, it s larger than a small car. It's a very, very big piece of equipment that fell. Maintenance workers discovered the plane was missing its slide when it landed, the Federal Aviation Administration said. We immediately contacted the FAA and are working with our team to better understand the circumstances surrounding this matter, United Airlines said. The Chicago Police Department said it responded to the incident in the 4700 block of North Chester Avenue but declined questions about the investigation to the FAA, the lead agency.
In 2019, a slide fell off a Delta flight landing at Boston's Logan International Airport. It fell into a residential area, too. There were no injuries at the scene of the incident.